It is the Sacrament of God’s mercy! It is the Sacrament of reconciliation! It is the healing Sacrament! It is the Sacrament of conversion! It is the Sacrament of penance! It is the power of love and forgiveness over sin! It is the Sacrament of salvation! It is God’s last word of grace over the condemnation the sin brings to us! Jesus died for our sins so we can live not under the power of sin, but under the power of his grace!
"We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him any more. For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God. In the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus. That is why you must not allow sin to reign over your mortal bodies and make you obey their desires; or give any parts of your bodies over to sin to be used as instruments of evil. Instead, give yourselves to God, as people brought to life from the dead, and give every part of your bodies to God to be instruments of uprightness; and then sin will no longer have any power over you -- you are living not under law, but under grace. For the wage paid by sin is death; the gift freely given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Roman 6:9-14.23)
We deserve only one thing when we do sin: death! It is the worst disgrace that exists since the creation of the world. It is the reason death and sadness got into the world. Saint augustine, one of the biggest doctors in the Catholic Church used to say:'Sin is the cause of sadness. Let holiness be the reason of your joy!'.
Jesus was sent into the world not to condemn sinners, but to teach them and to bring them back to live the kind of life for which they were created. In order to do that, he instituted in his Church the great sacrament of return to God's arms — the sacrament that allows us to come back to the life of communion with God and with our brothers and sisters; the sacrament that gives back the life our soul always loses when we commit mortal sins.
Many non-catholic Christians don’t believe and keep refusing to believe in the efficacy and the crucial reality that this is a wonderful grace of God which comes straight from the merciful heart of Jesus and it is not a human creation. It is a God creation! He himself is the one who conferred power and authority to his disciples to forgive sins in his name.
As good Catholics, we do not need to fall into the same error as Martin Luther, his followers, and the Protestants who keep seeking answers for everything only in the Holy Scriptures ("Sola Scriptura"); for we have a threefold rule of faith: the Holy Scriptures, Holy Tradition, and the amazing Magisterium of the Church.
Anyway we would like to expose the moment when Jesus gave a mission filled with power to his followers to forgive sins in his name and instituted the sacrament of Confession in the Bible. Saint John is the one who will report that to us, the exactly moment when the risen Christ appeared to the disciples.
"In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, 'Peace be with you,' and, after saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord, and he said to them again, 'Peace be with you.' As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.' After saying this he breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained." (John 20:19-23)
For those who are believers, there are no arguments against the power of the Word of God. Jesus breathed on the disciples and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, gave them the authority to forgive sins. The same thing the disciples have done with other disciples, and these other disciples in turn — passing on the authority Jesus conferred on them through breathing on them and through the imposition of hands.
Nowadays, the Catholic Church is the one who, through the Holy Father and the bishops, passes on that authority that came straight from Jesus to the priests — men like the disciples, who receive power and authority to forgive sins in Jesus' name — and we are the ones who can receive this abundant grace that flows from the open doors of the confessionals in the Church, as it flowed one day from the opened side of Christ on the cross.
Even in the midst of Catholics, it is sometimes difficult to talk about and explain the necessity we have of this amazing sacrament, for it is not a general thing to do as a rule, but a great grace to receive in order to strengthen our soul against the wicked ways of vicious and repetitive sins, from which we have no ability to be free except through the power of the grace of God.
There is a story about a monk who used to fall into the same kind of sin all the time. Week after week, he used to go and confess his sins to a priest, hoping to receive a special grace to get rid of that terrible habit; but it never happened. One day, he told his confessor he would give up coming back to confession, for he would never win: sin was always stronger than him.
On this very occasion and for his big surprise, his confessor who was also a holy man said a phrase that was decisive in his struggles: 'Never give up! The power of the sacrament will act in your life through your perseverance!' That was exactly what happened. One month after that hard struggles, he overcame that terrible sin. We can also say that this is also a Sacrament of Perseverance!
On our Christian life we have no energy, no motivation, no good will, no good habits, no strong desire to keep on track of Jesus steps unless we get to know and experience in our lives the power of God. We do need to have an encounter with Jesus Christ. We do need to have an encounter with the Father. We do need to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit. And one of the best ways of doing that is opening ourselves and asking him, from the bottom of our hearts, to come and give us that such experience!.
One way to start is to know that God loves us exactly the way we are and Jesus had died on the cross for our sins, while we were still sinners.
"When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless. You could hardly find anyone ready to die even for someone upright; though it is just possible that, for a really good person, someone might undertake to die. So it is proof of God’s own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. How much more can we be sure, therefore, that, now that we have been justified by his death, we shall be saved through him from the retribution of God. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more can we be sure that, being now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. What is more, we are filled with exultant trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation." (Romans 5:6-11)
The Sacrament of Reconciliation exists for those who are sinners, for God wants to show his merciful love to those who are in need. God wants to show there is a way back to his house, even if we have got to the point of that prodigal son, willing to eat the husks the pigs eat. We were not made to eat with the pigs the food the evil one has made for his servants, but to eat the food of the angels: the flesh and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We should not be hesitant on coming and confessing our sins for Jesus is the one who prepared our way back through his grace and power of purification of our sins and cleanliness of our soul. He is preparing a new robe, new sandals, a new ring (meaning a new covenant) and a new banquet (that is the Holy Sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world in the Holy Mass). The angels are always celebrating and having a feast when we come to confess our sins with the priest.
"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner." (Luke 15:10)
There are some practical things we should take into consideration and reflect on when we come to think about the Sacrament of Confession. The first thing is that we do need to repent with all our hearts and souls; for sinning is to offend God, to create an abyss between us and him, and to kill his life in our souls — that life which can be called grace. We do lose the grace of salvation he gave us when we were baptised.
So we call to mind our sins, acknowledge them, regret for having sinned, we repent and ask for God’s forgiveness over our wickedness and his grace in order not to sin anymore. We shall ask the light of the Holy Spirit to show us what is hidden and we can’t remember as well so we are faking a repentance but actually doing it helped by grace to be back to the fullness of his grace.
Next, we come to tell the priest (who acts in persona Christi — that is, in the person of Christ) our sins in the confessional. We should tell him verbally every single sin, even the worst things we have done, with repentance in our hearts that will be expressed through the act of contrition. At the end, we will receive a penance — in order to help correct us from those sins confessed — and the absolution.
Through human eyes, it looks like a silly thing to do; but if we look at the spiritual dimension, we can see that what really happens is precisely this: the blood and the water that flowed from the side of Jesus on the cross flow over our soul, through the minister of God that is the priest. His rays of mercy and grace bring back the life we have lost. His grace overflows in our hearts and minds!
The Church does recommend that we come to confession at least twice a year (on the occasion of the principal seasons of the Church: Easter and Christmas); but the frequency of coming to receive this Sacrament will depend on the type of life the person has, and the type of life they wish to have. Nowadays, it would be more than recommended that we come to confession at least every month.
One can say that that is too much if the Church just asks for two times per year. Well, we could get some examples on the life of the saints of the Church that knew very well what is such Sacrament.
Saint Francis of Assisi used to confess his sins in every two or three days. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina every week. Saint Vincent de Paul twice per week. Saint Philip Neri every other day. Saint Vincent Ferrer, Saint Charles Borromeo, Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Saint Louis Bertrand, Saint Andrew Avellino and many others every day. And even Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Bridget of Sweden and many others twice per day.
One can ask then: 'Why coming so many times to receive this Sacrament?' "Because it is the medicine for the illness of sin in our souls," Saint Thomas Aquinas would answer. For those who want to be in a true and great fervour, in intimate union with God, it is recommended to come to confession at least weekly; for the Sacrament of Confession is not only a medicine but also a strengthener, and we need to receive it at short intervals in order that its effects not be interrupted.
I myself had two wonderful experiences that I would like to share with you all about the graces of the Sacrament of Confession. I will try to be brief.
The first one happened when I used to live in Brazil and it was just after my spiritual director at the time, Father Gomes, heard my confession. I remember this day coming to confess my sins and I was weak, poor, sad, feeling that I could no longer be a christian, I was incapable of doing God’s work and I was inept to any good deed.
When I finished and left the confessional, I felt a great joy inside, deep in my heart. It was vibrant, and I could not hold it inside; I started to smile, showing the brightness of what the grace of God had done in my soul. I felt the power of God strengthening everything inside of me, healing me, and giving me another opportunity. It was a new start!
On getting back home, I had a kind of spiritual vision in which I was kneeling on the floor and the blood of Christ came over me again to cleanse me from my sins. Then I wrote the following poem (originally in Brazilian Portuguese), which was named "Reconciliation":
When I kneel down at your feet I feel your blood flowing
Over my life, cleansing my sins
Guiding me and edifying me one more time
For I am remade with this reconciliation
Inside of my being I feel a deep joy pulsating
For your light surround me from my head to toes
Your grace is happening inside and outside
And strengthening all of me
I give you thanks for fulfilling me with your presence
For be healing me, setting me free and allowing me to be born again
Bringing me to a substantiate faith
I glorify you for your own self is manifested
In this priest, that always more than the double
Of what I understand, undo the sentences of death and condemnation
The second experience happened in Belfast, where I live now, in one of the annual retreats organised by the Legion of Mary. There is always an opportunity to receive the Sacrament of Confession throughout the day, and the priests set themselves up in battle array in order to hear people's confessions.
I went to confess my sins to a beloved priest, Father Black; and during the Sacrament, while he was giving me the absolution, I felt something, and I had a spiritual vision. The first thing happened while his hands were extended towards me, and I felt a sort of dark forces (or black energy — or whatever the devils had done in my soul — or whatever you want to call it; it was something black) being sucked out from inside of me, and being extinguished by the power of his priestly hands. I am not relating something I was told; I am giving testimony of what happened to me.
The second thing was the spiritual vision. I saw the place where I was as the world: a field of war and of difficult battles, with loads of wounded men. There were some "mad doctors" in our midst, who had come to save our lives from death and to heal our wounds. The wounded men were all the people who were there, seeking relief and the grace of reconciliation with God and his Church. The doctors were the men who had given up their lives in order to serve and to be there to heal God's people — the priests.
I remember seeing it very clearly and the urge in my heart - we need to pray for more vocations and pray for our priests, for they give up their lives to save the lives of others who are in the midst of the war of this secularized world to be holy, offering the great sacrament of salvation and reconciliation with God’s heart that is the medicine to our souls. They are the warriors of the Lord!!!
So I told my present fiancée (who at the time was only my ex-girlfriend) about that feeling and vision, and she drew the picture below.
In order to finish this chapter, I would like to leave a message for the priests — the chosen ones of God, the ones who were called even before their conception to be persona Christi, to work in the vineyard of the Lord and to be these mad and courageous doctors of grace and salvation in this world — in order to generate in their hearts a great will to listen to confessions and to help God's people to be holy.
Some priests nowadays would consider themselves not so much spiritual directors but a sort of ecclesiastic secretaries. Obviously it is one of the deeds of the parish priest to look after the material and physical matters of a Parish but much more to look after the spiritual necessities.
Many times because of the compromises made with the world, priests don’t have time to hear a confession or to administrate the sacrament of the sick for they are too busy...
Saint Anthony of Padua used to preach to his people: 'Even if I am resting, come knock on the door for I want to listen to your confessions'. Saint Pio of Pietrelcina is said to have heard more than two million confessions, and to have spent all his priestly life listening to confessions twice every day, day and night.
Saint John Maria Vianney used to be assalted by the Evil One at night times, where he would have his bed set on fire and pass through big sufferings. The reason for that is because he spent really a lot of time on the confessionals. Instead of being upset and put down he would rejoice and keep up his head up saying: 'Tomorrow a big "fish" will come to the confessional'. Because of that the Evil One would press him against the wall and say: 'Stupid! If there were another three priests like you, my kingdom would be ruined here in France'.
We need holy priests who are committed, first of all, to God and to their own calling and vocation — for that is the path of happiness. Secondly, to their own holiness and sanctity. After that, they will be able to serve and to be instruments of God for God's people, in order to sanctify and bring them to holiness as well; for it is God's call to everyone:
"Finally, brothers, we urge you and appeal to you in the Lord Jesus to make more and more progress in the kind of life that you are meant to live: THE LIFE THAT GOD WANTS, as you learnt from us, and as you are already living it. You have not forgotten the instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus. WHAT GOD WANTS IS FOR YOU ALL TO BE HOLY". (1 Thessalonians 4:1-3)
If there were not holy priests like Father Gomes in Brazil and Father Black here in Northern Ireland, which I myself had these wonderful experiences with, I would not be able to give this testimony. But thank God there are! We need many more holy priests to be instruments of God, for such miracles and extraordinary graces start with a "yes" to the Lord who is calling.
May God bless his Church in order for us to live the life he wants and send more holy priests to offer the medicine to our souls. Amen!
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